Washington, DC–
A
group directly funded by the Republican National Committee has been
accused of destroying thousands of Democratic registration forms, and
participating in unethical activities in a number of states this cycle,
while misrepresenting itself as America Votes.

According to a
report
by KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, NV, former employees of “Voters Outreach of
America,” also calling itself “America Votes” have witnessed the firm
“rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.”

The group, run
by
longtime Republican operative Nathan Sproul, has been exposed for its
unethical and potentially illegal tactics in Oregon, Nevada, and West
Virginia. It also reportedly has been
active in
Missouri, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Florida,
under
the names “America Votes”, “Project America Votes” and “Voters Outreach
of America.”

Sproul &
Associates has received nearly half a million dollars in disbursements
from the Republican National Committee. The
RNC has also paid for the groups classified ads looking for staff
around the country.

In response,
Cecile Richards, President of the real
America Votes, sent a letter to Sproul, in which she says, “We ask that
you refrain from using the name “America Votes” in any of your
activities from this point forward. But
more importantly, we ask that you immediately stop all dishonest,
unethical, and potentially illegal activity.”

America Votes
is a
coalition of many of the largest membership-based groups in the
country, who have come together to increase voter registration,
education and participation in electoral politics. Founded in July,
2003, this historic partnership represents a combined membership of
more than 20 million Americans in every state in the country. Groups
that are part of America Votes work on a broad range of issues
including environmental protection, education, human and civil rights,
women's rights, choice and labor. At the national and state levels,
America Votes partner organizations have joined together to share
research and information in order to reach out to voters and encourage
greater voter participation.

# # #

Mr. Nathan Sproul

Sproul &
Associates Managing and Consulting Firm

P.O. Box 32664

Phoenix, AZ
85604

Mr. Sproul:

I recently
started
hearing reports that a firm called Sproul & Associates was
conducting unethical, and maybe even illegal, voter registration drives
on behalf of its client “America Votes.”

As President of
America Votes, that caught me off-guard, since I had never even heard
of Sproul & Associates.

I was even more
concerned when I heard last night that “Voters Outreach of America, AKA
America Votes” was being investigated for destroying Democratic voter
registration forms in Nevada.

So we started
looking into it, and what we found was very disturbing.

Sproul & Associates, a Republican political consulting
firm in
Arizona, was trying to set up voter registration drives at Oregon
libraries. Letters sent by your firm to
libraries claimed, “Our firm has been contracted to help coordinate a
national non-partisan voter registration drive,
America Votes! in several states across the nation.”
(Mail-Tribune, 9/21/04)

The toll-free number which librarians were given connects
to an
answering machine stating that if the caller is interested in
canvassing neighborhoods in support of the GOP,
he or she should leave a message with contact information.
(Mail-Tribune, 9/21/04)

Despite your statement that your group had not heard of
America
Votes, your employee Sue Noel, told a local newspaper that your group
was indeed aware that you were using our name, and that you had also
set up operations in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Florida
and Nevada. (Mail-Tribune, 9/21/04).

Your efforts in West Virginia relied on hiring
temporary workers
who were instructed to mislead potential voters – particularly
Democrats. Workers were told to portray
themselves as non-partisan, but to only register Republicans. One former worker called your efforts
“unethical” and “sneaky.” (Charleston
Gazette, 8/20/04).

In Nevada, former employees of Voters Outreach
for America (AKA
“America Votes”), have exposed the organization’s practice of
destroying registration forms completed by Democrats.
When called for comment by a reporter, your group’s local office had
been vacated and unavailable to respond.
The FBI is now investigating. And the
Oregon Secretary of State is investigating similar allegations in that
state.

Your organization has placed classified advertisements
around the country looking for staff. These
advertisements are paid for by the Republican National Committee. In fact, the Republican National
Committee has paid Sproul & Associates close to half a million
dollars this election cycle.

America Votes
is a
coalition of many of the largest membership-based groups in the
country, who have come together to increase voter registration,
education and participation in electoral politics. Founded in July,
2003, this historic partnership represents a combined membership of
more than 20 million Americans in every state in the country. Groups
that are part of America Votes work on a broad range of issues
including environmental protection, education, human and civil rights,
women's rights, choice and labor. At the national and state levels,
America Votes partner organizations have joined together to share
research and information in order to reach out to voters and encourage
greater voter participation.

Given our
commitment
to expanding the political process for every American, you will
understand my dismay that your group was taking such blatant steps to
disenfranchise potential voters, and using our name to do it.

When asked in
an
interview with an Oregon newspaper about the conflict with using
our
name, you said, “If they even just pick up the phone and call ... we
would change it in a heartbeat.”

Consider this
that phone call.

We ask that you
refrain from using the name “America Votes” in any of your activities
from this point forward.

But more
importantly, we ask that you immediately stop all dishonest, unethical,
and potentially illegal activity.

The American
people deserve better.

Sincerely,

Cecile Richards

President

America Votes

# # #

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FAKE AMERICA VOTES AND NATHAN
SPROUL

America
Votes?

News
of another America Votes is reported in Oregon.
“A local librarian checking on a company’s request to set up a voter
registration booth in the library discovered the company was not
affiliated with a non-partisan national group as it claimed.

Sproul & Associates, Inc. of Phoenix, AZ, phoned and
mailed the
library in September, saying it had been hired by America Votes. That
came as news to America Votes. That came as
news to America Votes.

"This organization (Sproul) absolutely has nothing to do with
America Votes," said Kevin Looper, the state organizing director for
America Votes.

America Votes is a non-partisan political organization formed
in
July 2003 to increase voter registration, education and participation
in electoral politics.

Libraries in Oregon and other states have been contacted
by Sproul.
Looper said attorneys at America Votes’ Washington,
D.C. headquarters
have taken over. ” [Source: Mail Tribune (OR), 9/21/04]

More states involved… “Sue Noel, a temporary
employee at Sproul & Associates, said the voter drive is called
Project America Votes and she knew about the redundant name.

She said the
company already has set up registration drives in Pennsylvania,
Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Florida and Nevada. In
addition to libraries, they’ve set up registration drives in front of
businesses and grocery stores, she said.” [Source: Mail Tribune (OR)
, 9/21/04

West
Virginia:
“After spending more than an hour with Charleston personnel agency
Kelly Services last week, Bragg was hired. "They wouldn't tell us at
first what this job was," the 37-year-old Bragg said Thursday.

Then she found
out it was registering Republican voters at One Stop convenience stores
throughout the Charleston region.”…

Bragg feels her
employers were misleading the public, even if it's not illegal.
Employees were to approach One Stop customers and ask if they favor
George Bush or John Kerry for president. If Bush was their answer, they
were then to inquire if the person was registered to vote and offer
them a voter registration card. If the person supported Democrat Kerry,
they were only to say thank you and give them a registration card only
if asked.

If asked
questions,
employees were instructed, "Only state you are there to conduct a
simple field poll to see what neighborhood support is ... a nonpartisan
registration drive."

They were told
to
quietly listen to any person who becomes angry and to remember, "The
goal is to register Republicans and to remain positive."

"Is this the
way it has to be? People have to be sneaky to make $9 an hour?" Bragg
said.
Employees were also given the number of a Kelly Services employee to
contact if there are problems. Contacted Wednesday, two different
employees said they would have someone from Sproul
& Associates, the firm paying for the survey, answer any
questions. [Source: Charleston Gazette , 08/20/04]

The
False America Votes is accused of trashing registration forms
signed by Democrats.
“Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a
mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected. The
I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of
potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. The focus of the
story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of
America, AKA America Votes.

The
out-of-state firm
has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering
voters. It
employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of
registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that
Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations. Two
former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up
and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.

"We caught her
taking
Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped
them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage
and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me," said Eric Russell,
former Voters Outreach employee. [Source: KLAS-TV Channel 8 News in Las
Vegas, 10/12/04]

Oregon
investigating a similar compliant.
“Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and Attorney General Hardy Myers plan
to investigate allegations that a paid canvasser might have destroyed
voter registration forms.

"There have
been
allegations made that someone threw out some voter registration forms
that had been submitted to them," Bradbury told The Associated Press
late Tuesday. "This is a violation of the law and I will meet with the
attorney general in the morning to talk about what we can do to pursue
this, and to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Bradbury
learned of
the conduct from KGW-TV, which interviewed Mike Johnson, 20, a
canvasser who said he was instructed to only accept Republican
registration forms. He told the TV reporter that he "might" destroy
forms turned in by Democrats.

"I have never
in my
five years as secretary of state ever seen an allegation like the one
that came up tonight — ever," Bradbury said. "I mean, frankly, it just
totally offends me that someone would take someone else's registration
and throw it out." [Source: Associated Press , 10/13/04]

Voter
Outreach of America ad “Paid for by RNC.”

VOA has used
temp workers at its voter registration campaigns.
One such ad for temp workers posted on Careerbuilder.com notes the
following disclaimer:

“Paid for
by the Republican National Committee. www.gop.com. Not authorized by any
candidate or candidate's committee.”

See the ad here
(a picture of the ad is included below if the link is taken down.)

Sproul’s
firm Sproul and Associates is spearheading the false America Votes
petition drive.
“A local librarian checking on a company’s request to set up a voter
registration booth in the library discovered the company was not
affiliated with a non-partisan national group as it claimed.

Sproul &
Associates, Inc. of Phoenix, Ariz., phoned and mailed the library in
September, saying it had been hired by America Votes. That came as news
to America Votes.” [Source: Mail Tribune (OR) , 9/21/04]

His
background…Kyl campaign, AZ Christian Coalition, AZ Republican Party to
opening his own firm Sproul and Associates:
“Sproul, who was born and raised in Tempe, has floated between
religious and secular politics. He interned in the office of then-Rep.
Jon Kyl during his successful 1994 run for the U.S. Senate, a campaign
buoyed by Kyl's perfect voting score from the Christian Coalition.
Sproul then worked for the Arizona Christian Coalition, eventually
becoming head of that organization. He became executive director of the
state Republican party in 1999, stepping down in January 2002.”
[Source: Arizona Republic, 06/28/04]

Sproul
also has ties to the Nader for President petition efforts.
“In addition, according to several sources, the Nader campaign was
assisted in its petition drive by an unlikely figure: the
ultra-conservative former executive director of the Arizona Republican
Party, Nathan Sproul. Sources say Sproul -- who is also spearheading an
initiative to block public funding from political campaigns in the
state -- made payments to the petition contractors working on his
public-funding initiative to gather signatures for Nader as well.”
[Source: Max Blumenthal, "Nader's Dubious Raiders", The American
Prospect Online, Jun 25, 2004.]

Sproul’s
education organization received funds from Bush’s No Child Left Behind
Legislation.
“Nathan Sproul, who helped spearhead the GOP's successful plan for
political redistricting, will step down as executive director at the
end of January. His new job will be regional president of an education
organization called Voyager Learning, which recently expanded
into Arizona and Texas.” [Source: Arizona Republic,
09/01/03]